PrintHere you'll find a collection of links to people, organizations, and resources that I think are relevant to this class. This is curated by me, based on my experiences and interactions. So it's by no means a complete listing of everything relevant and good.
Continuing Your Geospatial Education
My day job isn't to develop and teach MOOCs. I'm the lead faculty member for Online Geospatial Education(link is external) programs at Penn State. We offer 25+ online classes(link is external) in GIS and Geospatial Intelligence. We serve people who are brand new to the Geospatial world as well as senior professionals through our Certificate(link is external) and Master's Degree(link is external) programs. We've been doing this stuff at a distance since 1999, serving thousands of students. We've won awards(link is external), because our faculty and staff are amazing people. Unlike a MOOC, our typical online classes involve very high levels of interaction with professors, and small class sizes to provide individualized attention.
Don't let this be your one and only experience with Geography. Aside from what we offer at Penn State, there are academic programs(link is external) all around the world available to you. And if you can't afford to enroll in an academic program, most of our classes here at Penn State are available as Open Educational Resources(link is external), meaning that their content is free for you to use for self-study.
Jobs And Professionalism in Mapping
- The New Geospatial Jobs and How To Be Ready For Them(link is external)
- U.S. Department of Labor Geospatial Technology Competency Model(link is external)
Geospatial Blogs and Forums
- Wired MapLab(link is external)
- Ignite Education(link is external)
- Directions Magazine - Education(link is external)
- Axis Maps Blog(link is external)
- Bostonography(link is external)
- Making Maps: DIY Cartography(link is external)
- Cartotalk.org(link is external) the only forum I'm aware of that's dedicated solely to map design.
Professional and Academic Organizations
- NACIS(link is external) - North American Cartographic Information Society, hosts of the annual conference I have never missed(link is external) since first attending in 2005. The most fun I have at any meeting every year.
- ICA(link is external) - International Cartographic Association. I haven't missed an ICA conference since 2005, either.
- CaGIS(link is external) - Cartography and Geographic Information Society
- URISA(link is external) - Urban and Regional Information Systems Association
- AAG(link is external) - Association of American Geographers
- UCGIS(link is external) - University Consortium for Geographic Information Science
- BCS(link is external) - British Cartographic Society
Cartographers Who Inspire Me
- Cindy Brewer(link is external) we once took 12 students around the world(link is external) because we love maps so much.
- Arzu Çöltekin(link is external) does fascinating work at the intersection of vision science and geography.
- David DiBiase(link is external) my former boss and forever mentor; the best boss I've ever worked for.
- Jason Dykes(link is external) leading an amazing group of geovisualization researchers in London.
- Sara Fabrikant(link is external) directs a vibrant GIScience research center in Zurich. I may have had too many beers at her house once upon a time.
- Ken Field(link is external) has an excellent blog and keeps mapping real at Esri. Also the most engaged Cartographer on Twitter(link is external), I think.
- Kirk Goldsberry(link is external) the only cartographer I've ever seen on ESPN(link is external).
- Amy Griffin(link is external) a great friend and my partner in crime in eye-tracking research.
- Daniel Huffman(link is external) making really innovative maps all the time, like this one(link is external).
- Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso(link is external) develops amazing community resources like Natural Earth(link is external) and recently joined a company whose logo is a piece of fruit to make their stuff awesome.
- Menno-Jan Kraak(link is external) has paved the way in space-time visualization research for many years, is one of the nicest guys on the planet.
- Amy Lobben(link is external) is doing ground-breaking work to understand how people think about space(link is external) when using maps.
- Alan MacEachren(link is external), my PhD advisor who made everything possible for me. Known for his book, How Maps Work(link is external) as well as his incredible beard.
- Virginia Mason(link is external) makes all kinds of amazing map stuff at National Geographic.
- Tom Patterson(link is external) making some of the most beautiful shaded relief(link is external) maps you can find.
- Robert Roth(link is external) grad school friend of mine doing some of the most exciting mapping research at a school known for such things.
- Andre Skupin(link is external) inspires me every time he speaks, and makes me laugh really hard as well. Loves soup.
- Terry Slocum(link is external) writes the excellent go-to book(link is external) for our craft. Incredibly nice guy, too.
- Alex Tait(link is external) does top-notch mapping for National Geographic and other high-profile clients.
- Tim Wallace(link is external) has a hand in a ton of interesting and beautiful mapping projects.
- Sarah Williams(link is external) leads a lab at MIT making some excellent urban-focused maps and visualizations.
- Andy Woodruff(link is external) monster cartographer and social butterfly. Helps make maps like these(link is external) which you should buy by the truckload.
- Jo Wood(link is external) works with Jason Dykes and has a hand in some of the most beautifully functional geovisualization work I've seen.
Great Maps
- Essential Geography of the United States(link is external) you have a wall somewhere that needs this map.
- Atlas of Design(link is external) compendium of excellent contemporary cartography.
- David Rumsey Map Collection(link is external) beautiful historic maps, accessible on the web.
- Borch Travel Maps(link is external) I buy a lot of city travel maps - these are the best.
- Typographic Maps(link is external) beautiful and informative.
Mapping Tools & Data
Tools:
- CartoDB(link is external)
- IndieMapper(link is external)
- GeoExplorer(link is external)
- GeoCommons(link is external)
- QGIS(link is external)
- GRASS(link is external)
- uDIG(link is external)
- Esri Educational Licenses(link is external) if you're enrolled at a University that has an Esri site license.
Geospatial Data
- Natural Earth(link is external)
- GeoCommons(link is external)
- United Nations GeoNetwork(link is external)
- USGS National Map(link is external)
- WeoGeo(link is external)
Cartography Firms
- Axis Maps(link is external)
- Geographx(link is external)
- International Mapping(link is external)
- Red Geographics(link is external)
- Stamen(link is external)